Duke Wilhelm V founded the Hofbräuhaus in 1589. He'd spent so much money building an enormous church, monastery complex and palace that he couldn't afford to import his favourite brown beer from Einbeck near Hannover.

He brought a brewmaster from there instead. His son Maximilian turned it into a profitable business. A minor ice age ended winemaking in Bavaria at the turn of the 1600s. Beer drinking picked up. Today the brewery is owned by the state of Bavaria.

In 1823, Germans experienced one of the coldest winters of the century. Fire suppression ponds froze. An overturned oil lamp during an opera performance started a fire. Decorations caught fire and spread through the building. The sprinkler system was frozen. Spectators made no effort to extinguish flames, many saw the blaze as punishment for demolishing a Franciscan monastery where the opera stood. King Maximilian I seized beer from the nearby Hofbräuhaus to fight the fire. It didn't help much. Half the building burned anyway. For the first time in history, the price of beer was raised at Oktoberfest to fund rebuilding.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours explain why Wilhelm founded his own brewery, trace the beer that fought the opera fire, and reveal the Hofbräuhaus's dark Nazi party history.